Ok, I'm back. What with the holiday, writing, and getting ready for the new semester, I don't know where the time goes. In any event, I'm back...and with good tidings for the new year. CNBC is back on the band wagon reporting the next merger wave:

"In terms of the numbers, we'll see announced M&A going up more rapidly than completed M&A—Q2, Q3 we'll see M&A activity beginning to come in. And that's really going be the story, which is the next wave."

And CNBC is not alone. Yesterday, the WSJ had a nice run-down of corporate optimism and the cash piles that they hope to fund the next wave under the headline "Big Firms Poised to Spend Again":

"We preserved cash" over the past few years, said Jim Flaws, chief financial officer of Corning Inc. "Now we're turning around and feeling comfortable about our outlook and spending it."